Connecticut Q&A: Melvin H. Wearing

A New Top Cop Finds Children the Focus

By RICHARD WEIZEL

Published: May 11, 1997

MELVIN H. WEARING expected that someday he just might be New Haven's first black chief of police.

After all, he had 28 years on the force, was the department's first black assistant chief and had risen steadily through the ranks while helping to develop several ground-breaking law-enforcement programs -- including the Yale Child Study Center's child development/community police program to help children cope with violence.

But what Mr. Wearing never expected was the sudden shift in February when Nicholas Pastore, then the police chief, was forced to resign after admitting that he fathered a child with a convicted prostitute. Almost instantly, it was Chief Wearing, head of a department of 443 officers and 125 civilian employees.

A former chief of detectives in investigative services, Chief Wearing, 53, has focused a great deal of time on developing programs for children affected by violence. At a recent White House conference on early childhood development and learning, he told President Clinton and a gathering of early childhood experts about how his department now trains officers to help children exposed to violence.

Recently Chief Wearing spoke in his office about the tough challenges he and his department face in one of the state's largest urban centers. Following are excerpts from that conversation:

Q. You've known and worked with former police chief Nicholas Pastore for many years, and some say were being groomed by him to be the next chief. But do you feel he let down the department and community by his actions?

A. Obviously he did, no doubt about that. He betrayed the trust that the community gave him. Clearly, and by his own admission, there was an indiscretion on his part, and as a result of that he lost credibility in the community and the mayor had to move to replace him. There's no way around the fact that he made a major mistake, and he paid dearly for it.

Q. Does the scandal taint Chief Pastore's record?

A. No. I really believe he was a great police chief, one of the best this department has had and one of the best chiefs in the country. He truly turned this department around, changing the very culture of policing from traditional to community policing. He might have been guilty of poor judgment, but nothing can take away from his dynamic leadership and the way he reached out to the African-American community in New Haven. No one had ever done that.

Q. Do you see yourself as a role model, particularly for young people of color who may not always have had a very high opinion of police officers?

A. My father died when I was 7 years old, so I know how important it is for young people to have role models they can look up to. I was born and raised in North Carolina and had six brothers and sisters to look after. After years of hard work, today I sit here as police chief. If young people can be inspired by that and look at me as a person who is similarly situated to them in life and achieves something important, if that's what you want to call a role model, then I guess I am a role model.

Q. What direction do you intend to take the department in; what areas need particular attention or change?

A. I certainly want to continue with community policing. This is something I am as committed to as Chief Pastore. I will also be addressing quality of life crimes, crimes that people see on the street every day; things like prostitution, gambling, public drinking, excessive noise, motor vehicle noise, kids loitering on street corners.

Q. You have talked about how important technology and computers are to policing. What is your department is doing in these areas?

A. One of my main projects is going to be crime analysis. We're putting together a planning, research and development unit and neighborhood services unit that will get out data on a daily basis, whereupon we will be able to deploy our officers during specific times of day to locations on a daily basis based on crime analysis. I think this is very crucial, and will be one of the methods that will help to significantly reduce crime.

Q. How did you get so involved with the issue of how violence affects children?

A. This has been plaguing our cities forever. Children who witness violence on a daily basis, whether it be in their home, on the streets or by police officers, are greatly scarred. Sometimes, as police officers, we perpetuate that kind of trauma by carrying on drug raids in their homes. I began to realize that these children needed help and counseling, which the program at the Yale Child Study Center now provides. This is a program of which I am very proud.

Q. Last year the Rev. Jesse Jackson came to New Haven and spoke during a rally of striking Yale maintenance workers. Mr. Jackson charged that there are two New Havens -- one that favors the upper echelon at Yale, the other the inner city, where the quality of life is sorely lacking. Do you agree with that assessment?

A. There are certainly two New Havens in that sense that Rev. Jackson spoke about. But I am police chief for all of New Haven, and our task as a department is to make sure that we do the best possible job we can do to control crime, while at the same time continuing to reach out to the poorer neighborhoods to gain the trust of people. This department is very diverse, and truly reflects the population of this city. I believe that fact also aids us in our efforts to reach out to the community.